Beginner trade route question about ranges

[IandMR]

I understand the antiquity land trade route range is 10 tiles.

Would somebody be so kind as to clarify this by letting me know which interpretations are correct?

1. It is 10 tiles counted from the home city to the foreign city so there are a maximum of exactly 9 tiles between them.
2. There are a maximum of ten tiles between them.
3. There tiles are measured by the shortest distance.
4. The terrain of each land tile in between the cities is irrelevant.
5. Only impassible land terrain (mountain) must be avoided when counting tiles.

If there is anything else I need to know, or have missed, or if the options don’t make sense please feel free to let me know!

 

[IandMR]

I am still trying to fully grasp how the trade system works and hope to help others in a similar position by either posting some observations or by asking questions that somebody with a much better grasp my answer!

It seems that the game creates a trade network for your empire which is essentially roads that connect your cities and towns to foreign cities and towns. The game creates a road when a merchant arrives at the foreign city or town and you select the trade option if the game provides the option. This only happens if the game identifies the destination as being in range.

Here is a situation that I do not grasp at all though ….

I settled Luoyang as a town which the game connected by road to Roma, a city controlled by the computer player. Roma is connected by road to Aksum (a different computer player controlled city) which is connected to my other town Chendu by road and Chendu has a working trade route with Aksum.

A merchant in Luoyang could not trade with any other settlement because they were all listed as out of range even though Roma is only 7 tiles away by road. I converted Luoyang to a city in case this changed anything but it didn’t. I sent the merchant along the road between Luoyang city and Roma city but I still cannot trade. Luoyang city has 2 empty trade slots and Gypsum which the trade screen lists as not connected to my empire’s trade network.

As an aside, Athenai (another computer player controlled city) is only 7 tiles from but I cannot trade with it currently. Athenai has a road that stops inside the boundary 6 tiles long and doesn’t read the capital city tile. This road comes from Tollan-Xicocotitlan which is a settlement I have a trade route with.

I would really appreciate any comments or help at all and genuinely get how difficult it must be to make sense of my post but any observations at all would be great and maybe be of interest to others hopefully!

 

[Evolena]

It's 1 over 2.
A Mountain in the direct path of the 10 tiles does block the Road creation. Navigable Rivers too (at least at the starts of Antiquity), and Coast in any case.

You can find more obscure considerations here (not the same Capua or Ostia as above, I've replayed to make these screenshots):

The rules are very obscures.
Here's the minimap for reference:
View attachment 720724
Here are all Settlements and their connections (checked by setting all Towns to Hub to count the number of connections from the Influence gained, and then converting them all one by one to Cities on a couple of reload to check where the food goes), at the start of Modern Era:
View attachment 720730
Red and purple continents are Distant Land, and Everwyk is a Treasure Island.

Roads:

• Capua does not have a road to Roma because it was founded after Patavium, and Patavium is nearer, so yep, space your Towns if you want a direct road to the capital.
• After some digging in old saves, Ravenna is connected to Aquilea because it was founded before Ostia, and they are 10 tiles apart. The foundation of Ostia afterwards on the existing road still connected it to the 2 others.
• There is a visual road between Aquilea and Parsa, but that does not transfer to an actual connection.
  • Capua - Parsa started as a Trade Route before I conquered the latter.
  • At the foundation of Aquilea, the road to Capua was initially more in the middle (it followed a minor river).
  • The roads in the area have changed with the Exploration era transition: maybe the 2 roads in T-shape have been changed to a ▼-shape, but with still only the original 2 connections.
• Samarkand was the last one added to my empire in Antiquity, from IP integration. It created a road to Ravenna, even though it has a naval connection to Ostia.
• Hastinges and Chereburghs are separated by a Coastal bay (with a Fishing Quay connecting the two sides) and a range of Mountains, still it's only a 19 tile distance to make the detour and the Modern age Land Route range is 20.
  • However the distance is 21 if also avoiding passing through the AI Settlement on the other side of the Mountains.
• Colcester and Chereburgh could have a naval connection, but for whatever reason a road has been built when I've founded Colcestre after Chereburgh (same as with the road from Samarkand?).

Space your Towns if you want a direct road to the Capital instead of between the 2 Towns, and if you want 2 Towns in the same direction feeding one City at one end, found the middle one last.

Naval:

• Same continent naval connections are OK, whatever the distance it seems (Aquilea - Roma is 45 tiles), but it needs the Town to be directly on the Coast or the Navigable River (no Fishing Quay required).
  • Near the Coast with a Coastal district does not work (Patavium).
  • On a Navigable River but with another Town in-between does not work (Parsa).
• Some times, there is a naval connection between continents (Samarkand - Chereburgh, Cusa - Everwyk, Everwyk - Fécamps, Cusa - Hastinges), and sometimes... just no (Samarkand - Aquilea, Cusa - Fécamps, Everwyk - Hastinges), even so the distance is not an issue?
  • I mean, Samarkand - Chereburgh, that's 30 tiles, but Bayeux is nearer (even when going to the next side of the island where the Fishing Quay is, if that's the factor) and on the same continent as Chereburgh but is not connected to Samarkand while Chereburgh is?
  • Aquilea is on a Navigable River, but does not have a Fishing Quay. But building one doesn't change anything, it still is connected to Roma (same continent) but not Samarkand (nearer).

Aquilea and Cusa have 5 connections, maybe there is a limit here? But that doesn't explain Everwyk - Hastinges...
Maybe there can only be one trans-continental naval connection.

[Edit]

Spoiler Capua - Aquilea - Parsa before and after the Exploration transition :

View attachment 720731
View attachment 720733

 

[IandMR]

Hi, this has been incredibly helpful and done a wonderful job of filling in the gaps I have from testing out different things in the game simply focussed on trade. I gave spent several hours over the last two days just concentrating on this narrow aspect of the game. I think I am more or less getting there regarding land trade in antiquity and you have been a massive contributor to that. I thank you most sincerely!

 

[Evolena]

Thank you
Beware though that the rules for Town connection, Trade Routes, and Railroad connection in Modern age, may be different.
An easy difference for example is that you can always have a Naval Trade Route if the range is OK, but for a Town connection there is an added rule that the 2 Settlements must be on the same Continent.

 

[IandMR]

Nice tip. Thanks, it’s these kinds of little details that can leave a brand new player scratching their heads for days

 

[CliffCo]

While roads will show between towns and city's even if there's a navigable river there, the route will not be usable until you place a bridge over the river. Main issue is that only cities can build bridges so if the navigable river is within a towns borders there's no way to connect them without making the town a city. Hopefully it was an oversight by the devs and will be amended.

There's an article on the Fandom. Wiki that shows trade route distances increase by era, it shows land routes as 10, 15, and 20 /era and sea routes as 30, 45, and 60 /era

 

[IandMR]

That’s a real gem of information and I would have probably struggled for hours to find that problem and solve it. Thank you!

 

[icon41gimp]

That river issue is probably what is causing most of the confusion - it's especially difficult because seeing where roads actually are under urban tiles is very difficult. Hopefully they can allow the algorithm to search for a route that doesn't include rivers first and only cross them if it's necessary.

 

[stealth_nsk]

That river issue is probably what is causing most of the confusion - it's especially difficult because seeing where roads actually are under urban tiles is very difficult. Hopefully they can allow the algorithm to search for a route that doesn't include rivers first and only cross them if it's necessary.

On top of this, I expect some connection lenses to display all connections and highlight those missing bridges.

 

[StargazingDog]

That river issue is probably what is causing most of the confusion - it's especially difficult because seeing where roads actually are under urban tiles is very difficult. Hopefully they can allow the algorithm to search for a route that doesn't include rivers first and only cross them if it's necessary.

In my experience, the game does. There may be a limit to how far out of the way it will go. In one of my cities with navigable river, the road veers off two tiles to the right, around the river, then back. The game does the same with mountains. I suspect the only time it may not do this is when veering off course would be longer than the maximum trade route limit.

 

[Evolena]

In my experience, the game does. There may be a limit to how far out of the way it will go. In one of my cities with navigable river, the road veers off two tiles to the right, around the river, then back. The game does the same with mountains. I suspect the only time it may not do this is when veering off course would be longer than the maximum trade route limit.

It may do so for Roads made from Trade Rute, but maybe not for Roads created between your own Settlements (seemy screenshots above).